Color iShuffle Are Here

The iShuffle now comes in 5 colors.

Sony 3rd-Quarter Profit May Fall 50%

According to Bloomberg, Sony 3rd-Quarter Profit May Fall 50%

I'll just cite some of the interesting parts.

Sony Corp., the world's largest maker of video-game players, may report third-quarter profit fell 50 percent after its flagship PlayStation 3 lost market share to Nintendo Co.'s Wii.

Losses from games probably drove net income down to 84.1 billion yen ($691 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from a record 168.9 billion yen a year earlier, according to the median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales at Tokyo-based Sony, which reports earnings tomorrow, probably rose 9.6 percent to 3 trillion yen.

The results may highlight Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer's failure to fend off Nintendo, whose $250 Wii console outsells the PlayStation 3 by two-to-one. Sony may still exceed its full-year profit target because of a weaker yen, sales of Bravia televisions and growth at its movie unit.

``A drop in third-quarter results is largely expected on the games division. There's no surprise unless the company further reduces its profit forecasts,'' said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees $468 million in assets at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. in Tokyo. Akino doesn't recommend investors buy Sony stock ``until the company improves its earnings.''

.........

The game division, Sony's second-largest by revenue, probably lost 50.9 billion yen during the quarter, compared with a profit of 67.8 billion yen a year earlier, after sales fell 7 percent, according to the Bloomberg survey.

After botching the PS3's debut with production delays and cutting the price to compete against cheaper Wii and Xbox players, Sony will probably lose a record 191.9 billion yen from games this fiscal year, compared with profit of 8.7 billion yen the previous year, according to the Bloomberg survey.

Nintendo, the world's largest handheld game maker, last week reported profit in its latest quarter jumped 40 percent to 77.6 billion yen, fueled by demand for Wii consoles and portable DS game players.

In the U.S., Nintendo sold 1.1 million consoles in November and December, almost double the PlayStation 3 units shipped during the period, according to researcher NPD Group. In Japan, Nintendo sold 989,118 Wii units last year, more than double PlayStation 3 sales, according to researcher Enterbrain Inc.

PS3 Euro Price Official

The European price for PS3 has been announced. Only the 60gig version will be available. The retail price is 599 euro, or around $777. In UK, it will be 425 pound, or around $836. In Australia, it will be AU$ 999.95, or around $781. In New Zealand, is NZ$ 1199.95, or around $840. Ireland with the new price increase is at 629.99 euro, which is around $816.

The launch date remains March 23.

Habeas Corpus Is A Myth?

G pointed this out to me last week, the news item has since gotten more air play.

The brief summary is, "Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales questioned whether the U.S. Constitution grants habeas corpus rights of a fair trial to every American".

Apparently our rights are myth.

China Wants To "Purify" The Net

Chinese Communist Party center committee elite Hu Jintao has stated China intends to "Purify" the net.

He wants to "Ensure that one hand grasps development while one hand grasps administration".

Is that what we are calling filter out stuff you don't like these days?

Little Angels

We went to see Little Angels Korean Folk Ballet on Saturday night at Southern theatre. We were amazed they came to Columbus Ohio. I mean, they are only playing in three cities. Chicago, Detroit, and Columbus Ohio? I thought it was funny that on the brochure, when they listed the three cities. Columbus was the only one that was listed as Columbus, Ohio with the state.

They are only playing one night, it was nearly sold out. My favorite part was the drum dance. I took a bunch of photos with my w810i. The following two are from the drum dance. The rest of them are on my flickr area. Toward the end, the usher actually came and asked me not to take any more pictures. Fortunately, I already got all the photos I want. So there! And no, it's not a no camera allowed event. There were many people taking pictures with bright flash. I at least took all of mine with no flash.

Bought A Display Case For $5?

I was at Best Buy on Friday night, going through the game section. I saw a copy of Crackdown, and I was totally excited. The demo for the game was interesting. So I quickly grabbed it.

When I got home, I was thinking to myself, "Hmm, I thought this game doesn't come out till Feb." So I open the case, it's not shrink wrapped. Inside, there is absolutely nothing. I was like "huh?" So I looked carefully again, and saw a tiny legal print on the front bottom of the case. "For Display Only". I double check the receipt, it says I bought a game for $5.

I quickly ran back to Best Buy to get this taken care of. The customer service person was equally surprised. He thought maybe it was a pre-order thing. I was like "I'm surprised a display case will ring up as a $5 game." So I exchanged it for another game.

In all these years of shopping at Best Buy though, this is the first time I bought a display case. :)

Wii Sales Slow in Japan; Lost Planet Break 1 Million Unit Sold

Wii sales has slowed down in Japan. 93,708 units were sold this past week. PS3 sales continue to be flat, at 25,531 units sold.

Meanwhile, Lost Planet sold 1 million-th copy on Jan 17th. Making it the 13th Xbox 360 games to break 1 million unit sold.

The list follows.

1. Need for Speed: Most Wanted
2. Perfect Dark Zero
3. Call of Duty 2
4. Dead or Alive 4
5. Fight Night Round 3
6. Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter
7. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
8. Dead Rising
9. Saint's Row
10. Madden NFL 07
11. Gears of War
12. Call of Duty 3
13. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

For PS2, during the first 14 month, only 1 game sold over 1 million copy.

Java Intro Textbook For Free

University of Illinois has released their CS125 Intro to Computer Sciences textbook as a free PDF download. It's a 441 page introductory Java textbook used at the University.

So if you ever want to learn Java, go download it. Kudos to University of Illinois!

iPhone Is Here, Sorta

First the good news, the long awaited iPhone is here. It's 320x480, runs OSX, comes with iTunes, iPhoto, Dash Board, and various other OSX things. No, it's not OSX for embedded, but a regular OSX. It uses Safari for browser, Apple Mail (which is based on NeXT Mail) for mail, as such supports both POP and imap. They've arranged a free Yahoo imap account with each iPhone. But the real partner is Google. Google Map and Gmail are on the phone too, as well as very tightly integrated navigation technology based on Google Map. It has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP (Stereo profile) support, also has 802.11. The support for 802.11 is excellent because well, OSX supports 802.11 quite well. The phone will automatically switch to wifi for data if you come into range with any 802.11 access point you've setup. So you can still get phone call from GSM, but surf using 802.11.

The Cingular exclusive, which for some of you is a negative, expires 2008. The price they listed, $499 for 4gig version and $599 for 8gig version is with 2 year contract. You can't buy the phone any other way. On the other way, you can set any image you have on the cellphone as wallpaper and caller id, you can set any music you have in your iTune as ringtone. No need to buy anything from Cingular.

It's quad band+EDGE. So no 3G technology such as UMTS. And it's 2 megapixel camera. Which while lovely for US, in Japan/South Korean, this places it in mid-range.

The phone's UI is very well designed, you can check out the demos here. The phone will be available in June in US. Asia isn't till 2008. I don't know how well the phone will do in Japan. While having wi-fi is nice, not having 3G support in Japan is hard to endure for the Japanese High School Girls, who download and buy tons of media/apps. The touch screen usage could also be a negative. As A said, she's not sure if her super texting skills will translate, since she's used to buttons.

And yes, Apple is permitted to use iPhone. When Cisco registered the trademark two years ago, Apple approached them about licensing the name 6 month later. They've worked out a deal.

Football More Important Than Governing

Just saw this on CNN. No wonder Congress is so messed up.
A Democratic aide said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio had asked that there be no votes until Tuesday.

"There is a very important event happening Monday night, particularly for those who live in Ohio and Florida," said House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer.

"In the spirit of comity," Hoyer told colleagues, the House would not return to work until Tuesday. While many appreciated the move, some criticized Democrats.

"We all know the big national championship game is on Monday night," said Rep. Tom Price, a Georgia Republican. "But taking an entire day to watch the game isn't what we should spend part of our five-day work week doing."

King Of Instant Ramen Passes Away

I decided to just reprint the article from Japan Times. instead of summarize it. Instant Noddole(aka Cup Noddle, Palme) is an important part of my life, as well as lives of many friends. Heck, A and Y both get paid to promote cup noddles. During the time of struggle, I've gotten pass it by eating ramen for meals.

OSAKA (Kyodo) Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin Food Products Co. and inventor of instant ramen, died of heart failure Friday evening at a hospital in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, his family said. He was 96.

Momofuku Ando, founder of Nissin Food Products Co., stands inside a replica of the hut where Chicken Ramen was developed, at the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, in 1999.
Born on March 5, 1910, in Taiwan, Ando initially ran clothing companies in Taipei and Osaka while he was a student at Ritsumeikan University. In 1948, he founded the precursor to Nissin and in 1958 unveiled Chicken Ramen, the world's first instant noodle product.

Ando was inspired to develop the instant noodle after coming upon a long line of people on a cold night shortly after World War II. They were waiting to buy freshly made ramen at a black market food stall.

The experience convinced him that "peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat," according to Nissin.

In 1971, Nissin introduced the Cup Noodle featuring instant ramen in a waterproof plastic foam container. Dubbed the "Ramen King," Ando is credited with expanding Nissin into the No. 1 company in the industry and was well-known for his dedication to his work.

Kei Kizugawa, head of the journal Kamigata Geino, said Ando was a great food product inventor whose accomplishments equaled that of Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. "I believe generation after generation will talk about Chicken Ramen," Kizugawa said. "I don't think there will ever be an instant noodle product that beats the taste of Chicken Ramen."

In 1999, Ando opened the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, after installing his second son, Koki, as president of the company.

Ando retired from the chairman's post in June 2005 to serve as founder-chairman.

In July 2005, Nissin introduced a vacuum packed instant noodle specially designed for Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to eat during a mission aboard the U.S. space shuttle Discovery.

Showcasing his Space Ram noodles, Ando said, "I'm happy I've realized my dream that noodles can go into space."

Google Adds Stats To Reader

Google added all sorts of insane stats tracking into their RSS Reader. Between this and its ability to perform well on mobile devices. I'm switching from Thunderbird to Google Reader as my primary RSS reader.

Groovy 1.0 Released

Finally after all this time, Groovy has hit 1.0 status. It's a dynamic language that's designed to run on JVM. In that keyspace, the current players are Jython, JRuby, and JavaScript via the Rhino Engine in JDK 1.6. Jython hasn't seen any movment in sometime. It has fallen behind Python ever since Microsoft hired the lead away to develop Iron Python which is Python running on .NET VM. JRuby is moving along, and got a big boost thanks to Sun hiring the two developers. I'm not sure how Rhino will fit into the picture. Traditionally JavaScript tend to be used on client side web browser programming.

We shall see what comes of this.

Bush: Do As I Say Not As I Do

So on one hand, Bush wants to open our mail whenever he felt like it. On the other hand, hands off on White House.

It would seem that the White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.

Bush Wants To Read Your Mail

It's official. The current administration feels they can read any mail without warrant. Yet another step closer to 1984. Pretty soon we might as well start ccing the government on everything we do.

Xmas Loot

This Xmas has been good to me. P got me a new cellphone, the Sony w810i. I've also received memory upgrade for my Powerbook 17inch.

And the entire family got together and got me the complete collection of "Get Smart" DVD set. It's not out yet, so it's an IOU till release.

I also got a new limited edition PSP.

Nintendo DS Now Mainstream In Japan

The holiday numbers are out. After the strong performance of DS game sales in Japan. Nintendo DS has overtaken PS2 as the new mainstream console of Japan. This is computed by the revenue of new game sales on a console. PS2 has had this crown for sometime.